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The "Home College Series" will contain one hundred short papers on 
a wide range of subjects — biographical, historical, scientific, literary, domes- 
tic, political, and religious. Indeed, the religious tone will characterize all 
of them. They are written for every body — for all who.se leisure is limited, 
but who desire to use the minutes for the enrichment of life. 

These papers contain seeds from the best gardens in all the world of 
human knowledge, and if dropped wisely into good soil, wi'l bring forth 
harvests of beauty and value., 

They are for the young — especially for young people (and older people, 
too) who are out of the schools, who are full of "business" and "cares," 
who are in danger of reading nothing, or of reading a sensational literature 
Moat is worse than nothing. 

One of these papers a week read over and over, thought and talked about 
at "odd times," will give in one year a vast fund of information, an intel- 
lectual quickening, worth even more than the mere knowledge aco x uired, a 
taste for solid read ng, many hours of simple and wholesome pleasure, and 
ability to talk intelligently and helpfully to one's friends. 

Pastors nuTy organize " Home College " classes, or " Lyceum Reading 
Unions," or "Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circles," and help the 
young people to read and think and talk and live to worthier purpose. 

A young man may have his own little " college " all by himself, read this 
series of tracts one after the other, (there will soon be one hundred of them 
ready,) examine himself on them by the " Thought-Outline to Help the Mem- 
ory," and thus gain knowledge, and, what is better, a love of knowledge. 

And" what a young man may do in this respect, a young woman, and both 

old men and old women, may do. 

J. H. Vincent. 

New York, Jan., 18S3. 



Copyright, 1863, by Phillips & Hunx, Now York. 



Pome College j§wws. ftombtr (Kglxt. 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 



BY DANIEL WISE, D.D. 



The third day of April, 1783, was the birthday of Wash- 
ington Irving. The place of his birth was a modest, two- 
story house in William Street, New York city. He was the 
youngest of eleven children born to his parents, who, though 
neither rich nor high-born, were eminently good and respect- 
able people. His biographers have traced his pedigree to a 
noble Scotchman who was armor-bearer to the Scottish hero, 
Robert Bruce. But the fortunes of the family had decayed, 
and Washington's father, after a brief career as a sailor in 
British waters, had married and emigrated to New York, 
where he established himself in trade. 

Had young Irving's parents and friends foreseen that he 
would win a distinguished place in the republic of letters, 
they would have made more careful record of the deeds of 
his boyhood. But they saw no marked signs of promise in 
his character. To them he was only a lively little fellow 
given to prankish tricks, which, though often mischievous, 
were never malicious. They saw, too, that though he was 
full of natural vivacity, he was not even noted for superiority 
in his school studies. Hence but few incidents of his early 
life were treasured up. 

His mother had named him after the Father of our coun- 
try, because in the autumn succeeding his birth the victori- 
ous flag of our patriotic army floated over the fortifications 
of New York. Then Mrs. Irving said : " Washington's 
work is ended, and the child shall be named after him." 
And when, as President of the new-born nation, Washington 
returned to reside in New York, Lizzie, the boy's nurse, fol- 
lowed that heroic man into a store one morning, and, pre- 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 



senting her wondering little charge to him, said : " Please 
your honor, here's a bairn that was named after you." With 
characteristic delicacy of feeling the President, little dream- 
ing that his future biographer was before him, laid his hand 
on the child's head, and " gave him his blessing." 

It was young Irving's good fortune to be raised in a Chris- 
tian home; but it was unfortunate, both for him and for the 
world, that his father's piety was of that stern Scottish Cove- 
nanter type which, lacking the gentleness and sweetness of 
the blessed Christ, repels the playful and affectionate natures 
of sensitive children more than its sterling uprightness and 
rigid dutifulness attracts them. No doubt he thought he 
was doing a father's duty when, instead of permitting his 
children to spend their two half-holidays from school-work 
in the play-ground, he compelled them to spend one of those 
afternoons every week in studying the Catechism. On Sun- 
days, too, they were required to attend three church serv- 
ices ; or if one was missed, to occupy the hour in reading 
"Pilgrim's Progress." Such was the effect of this repression 
of childish feeling, that when they did play, their games 
were mimicries of the preaching and sacramental services of 
the Church. Their mother's piety was of a milder type. 
Her nature was gentle, and her manners winning. She was 
proud, too, of her youngest boy ; and when, in his father's 
absence, he gave vent in her presence to his spirit of fun, 
she would look upon him with admiring affection, tinged 
with sadness, and exclaim, " Oh, Washington ! if you were 
only good ! " 

Doubtless the mother's gentleness weakened, but did not 
wholly neutralize, the effect of his father's sternness. In spite 
of her more considerate piety, as the boy grew into the lad, 
he cherished a spirit of alienation from the faith of the 
Church in which he was being reared. He expressed this 
antipathy at an early age by stealthily obtaining confirma- 
tion in Trinity Church. Had his well-meaning but unwise 



WA SITING TON IE VING. 



father given judicious freedom to the playfulness of his 
child's nature, it is more than probable that his very sensi- 
tive soul would have been led into more than the mere form- 
al respect he paid to religion during the greater part of 
his life. It is also probable that his writings, without being 
less literary, would have been conceived in a spirit and with 
an aim that would have added immensely to their ethical 
value. 

Irving's school advantages were very limited. He attended 
private schools until he was sixteen. His teachers were men 
of only moderate attainments, except one Jonathan Fisk, 
his last instructor, with whom, however, he studied only a 
few months, and under whose direction he acquired a little 
knowledge of Latin. Two of his brothers were sent to Co- 
lumbia College. Why the same advantage, the loss of which 
he afterward regretted, w r as not given him, is not known. 

During his school-life he continued to indulge in prankish 
tricks. But his nature was too sensitive to permit his fun 
from lapsing into unkind treatment of any one. So keen 
were his sensibilities that he could not endure witnessing the 
harsh punishments often inflicted in those days upon rebell- 
ious school-boys. He was also noted for his truthfulness, 
never denying his complicity in any violation of rules in 
which he had participated. Nevertheless, he did often de- 
ceive his stern father, by stealthily taking lessons in dancing 
and by paying frequent visits to that forbidden ground, the 
theater. To this corrupting amusement he had been intro- 
duced by James K. Paulding, who was four years and a half 
his senior, and who subsequently became his literary associ- 
ate. Once visited, it became to him a place of enchant- 
ment. His presence at nine o'clock to evening prayers being 
absolutely required, he used to go early to the theater, wit- 
ness the first play, hasten home at nine, and then pretend to 
retire. Instead of going to bed, however, he would steal 
softly out of the window to the roof of a wood -shed, drop 



WASHING TOW IRVING. 



thence to the ground, and make his way back through a nar- 
row alley to the theater to see the after piece. Thus there 
was obvious inconsistency between his verbal truthfulness 
and this deception, which, besides being disobedience, was 
essentially falsehood in action. 

It does not follow, however, that young Irving, though 
gaining little knowledge from teachers, was not acquiring men- 
tal materials for future authorship. His mind was exceedingly 
sensitive to impressions from surrounding objects. Though 
given to reverie and day-dreaming, he was still an observer 
of men and things. While school-books failed to command 
his attention, works addressed to the imagination charmed 
him. Hence his mind kept growing, but chiefly on its 
esthetic side. And this kind of self-culture continued after 
he left school and entered a lawyer's office. Law studies 
were as dry leaves to his poetic nature, and, though he pur- 
sued them sufficiently to gain admittance to the bar in 1806, 
yet he never mastered them. An excursion up the Hudson, 
taken when he was seventeen years old, contributed more to 
the development of those idiosyncrasies which made him a 
successful author than all he gained from his superficial 
reading in Coke and Blackstone. The scenery of that noble 
river made those impressions on his imagination out of 
which he subsequently wrought those bewitching tales that 
entitle him to be regarded as the Magician of the Hudson. 

Symptoms of pulmonary disease alarmed his friends, and 
made them tolerant of his habits of ease, and so indulgent 
that when he was twenty-one they provided him with means 
to make a European tour. So delicate was his appearance 
when he started, that the captain of the ship on which he. 
sailed, seeing him as he went on board, said to himself, 
" There's a chap who will go overboard before we get across." 
This grim prediction was not fulfilled. On the contrary, the 
voyage and two years of loitering travel under circum- 
stances eminently favorable to his observation of men and 



WA SHING TON IE VIXG. 



maimers in the old world, restored his health, and added 
materially to the ideas and images on which his as yet un- 
developed genius was nourishing itself into maturity and 
strength. It must be confessed, nevertheless, that his Euro- 
pean experiences were not favorable to the right culture of 
either his religious or ethical nature. 

Hence, after his return to his "old home nest," we find 
him shining as a "bright particular star " in a gay association 
of highly respectable but convivial young men. He was 
exceedingly handsome, full of genial humor, charming in his 
manners, a delightful conversationalist, and every way fitted 
to command attention and admiration in the most highly 
cultivated social circles. He was in fact at this time a man 
of the world, apparently without any higher purpose than 
to enjoy life, and forgetful of the unalterable fact that the 
highest and only true enjoyment of life is impossible to an 
irreligious man. 

Up to his twenty-sixth year Irving's genius was a sealed 
fountain. He had been favorably known as an easy and 
promising writer of humorous sketches, the principal of 
which had appeared in the pages of "Salmagundi," a peri- 
odical which, though popular, was short-lived ; and in the 
" Literary Picture Gallery," which had a still briefer exist- 
ence : but probably no one suspected that from his then 
audacious, rollicking pen there was soon to flow a series of 
books which would command the admiration of the literary 
world in two hemispheres, and crown the brow of that seem- 
ing idler with the honor of being the first American belles- 
lettres writer to win recognition from English critics and 
readers as the equal of the best writers of English literature. 
But when, in 1809, Irving gave his "History of New York," 
by Diedrich Knickerbocker, to the world, its marvelous 
comicality not only set all the readers in America laughing, 
but moved Sir Walter Scott to write : " I have never read 
any thing so closely resembling the style of Dean Swift as 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 



the annals of Diedrich Knickerbocker. I have been employed 
these few evenings in reading them aloud to Mrs. S. and 
two ladies who are our guests, and our sides have been abso- 
lutely sore with laughter. I think, too, there are passages 
which indicate that the author possesses power of a differ- 
ent kind, and has some touches which remind me of Sterne." 

It is certainly Hot a very high moral achievement to make 
men laugh. Nevertheless, as Solomon observes, " There is a 
time to laugh," and since men will, and even need to, laugh 
at times for the purpose of shaking the cobwebs of care from 
their brains, one cannot refuse a measure of praise to him 
whose pen is skilled to excite not guilty but innocent laugh- 
ter. Irving did this, albeit, there is in parts of the Diedrich 
annals a coarseness and indelicacy in the humor, which one 
cannot help wishing had been toned down to the standard 
of delicacy which obtains in the Christian society of our times. 

Irving had by this work suddenly become a celebrity. No 
doubt the trumpet of fame sounded musically in his ears. 
But his heart was sad amid all this loud popular acclaim. 
Unquestionably he would have gladly exchanged his wreath 
of honor for the life of a young lady, Miss Matilda Hoffman, 
to whom he had been betrothed ; but who, through a rapid 
consumption, had been made the bride of Death. This be- 
reavement inflicted a wound upon his highly sensitive nature. 
It cast a gloom over his spirit which toned down its natural ex- 
uberance, and floated around his life to the end of his days. 
Years after, in a private note-book, he wrote of his lost love, 
" She died in the beauty of her youth, and in my memory she 
will ever be young and beautiful." One cannot but wish that 
he had sought consolation when under this affliction in the 
blessed Christ, instead of in active literary work and in 
scenes of travel, as he subsequently did. Had he done so, 
his writings, without losing much, if any, of their attic salt, 
would have been seasoned with that more precious salt of 
heavenly truth, which is the life of mankind. 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 



Success is to most minds a spur to further effort. But 
Irving's dreamy nature did not respond to it. He was rest- 
less and undecided as to his future course. He entered into 
a business connection with his brothers, who were importers 
of English cutlery, but for the time being they did all the 
work involved in its management, and he shared its profits. 
During the war of 1813 with England, he served as aid to 
Governor Tompkins for a brief period. In 1815 he went to 
England, where, owing to the sickness of his brother Peter, he 
assumed the management of their business on that side of the 
water. But the effect of the war with America, and the closing 
up of the long war on the European Continent, was disastrous 
to trade and commerce on both sides of the Atlantic. Their 
business was, therefore, ruined, and Irving, on account of the 
continued illness of his brother, had to assume the unpleasant 
task of carrying the firm through the tedious proceedings of 
bankruptcy. But out of this misfortune grew his firm resolve 
to make literature l»oth his profession and his dependence. 
Heretofore he had leaned for financial resources on his affec- 
tionate and generous brothers. But now in the hour of their 
pecuniary disasters he determined to make his pen a Pactolus 
out of which he would supply their wants as well as his own. 
So firm was this new-born purpose, and so strong his con- 
sciousness of literary power, that, notwithstanding his press- 
ing pecuniary needs, he declined a chief clerkship in the War 
Department at Washington, which was offered him at this 
critical point in his affairs. The first-fruits of this determi- 
nation was his "Sketch Book," which was published first in 
New York, and shortly afterward in London. 

The success of his " Sketch Book " was very decided. It 
made him the literary lion of the hour, and that, too, at a 
time when Scott and Byron were at the zenith of their popu- 
larity. The critics, including the caustic Jeffrey, praised it 
very highly, as did also Moore, Scott, Byron, Rogers, and 
many other magnates in the literary world. Mrs. Siddons, the 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 



tragic actress, on being introduced to him said of it, in a voice 
so deep and sepulchral that he felt nonplused, "You made 
me weep ! " The doors of the proudest mansions in En- 
gland were thrown open at his approach. Statesmen, military 
men, and philosophers swelled the chorus of popular admira- 
tion. He was, as his friend Leslie wrote, "the most fashion- 
able fellow of the day," and there seemed to be, as Peter 
Powell said to him, " almost a conspiracy to hoist you over 
the heads of your contemporaries." 

Irving was a man eminently fitted to shine in fashionable 
society. "He was," writes Mrs. Emily Fuller, who knew 
him well, " thoroughly a gentleman, not merely in external 
manners, but to the innermost fibers and core of his heart ; 
sweet tempered, gentle, fastidious, sensitive, and gifted with 
the warmest affections; the most delightful and invariably 
interesting companion, even in spite of occasional fits of 
melancholy, which he was, however, seldom subjected to 
when with those he liked ; a gift of conversation that flowed 
like a full river in sunshine — bright, easy, and abundant." 

This graphic picture of Irving's social qualities contains 
the secret of the power by which he attracted to himself the 
admiration and friendship of the many persons to whom his 
writings secured him an introduction, both in Europe and 
America. The charm which gave fascination to his books 
was but the expression of himself. Hence, those who first 
admired the author, when they made his personal acquaint- 
ance, loved the man. 

His " Sketch Book " was received as cordially in America 
as in England. He was, as he wrote, "completely over- 
whelmed " by the eulogiums passed upon it in the periodicals 
of his native land. 

Had Irving been naturally a vain man this excess of popu- 
larity would have puffed him into self-conceit, and most 
likely tempted him into the fatal mistake, often made by 
authors, of trading on the good opinion of the public. For- 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 



tunately, for his fame, vanity was not a dominating vice in 
his nature. Hence, we find him writing when the brazen- 
throated clarions of fame were still sounding in his ears : 
" I feel almost appalled by such success, and fearful that it 
cannot be real, or that it is not fully merited, or that I 
shall not act up to the expectations that may be formed. 
We are whimsically constituted beings. I had got out of 
conceit of all that I had written, and considered it very ques- 
tionable stuff; and now that it is so extravagantly bepraised, 
I begin to feel afraid that I shall not do so well again." 

Without doubt this fear was wholesome, in that it stimu- 
lated him to put good work into his next production, which 
was " Bracebridge liall," written so much in the vein of the 
" Sketch Book " as to be in some sense its continuation. It 
did not increase his reputation albeit it kept it at the same 
level. Its most effective sketches are " Dolph Heyliger," 
and the " Stout Gentleman," of which a critic remarked that 
" his most comical pieces have always a serious end in view," 
a criticism which Irving pronounced to be true. But may 
it not bo pertinent to ask, Is not the author's "serious end " 
often so deeply imbedded in the amber of his comicalities that 
few, even among critical readers, are sharp-sighted enough to 
discover it ? 

"Tales of a Traveler," published in 1824, was "more 
artistic," more finished in the style of its composition than 
his previous works. Had it preceded them, it would in all 
probability have been as warmly received. But to the easily- 
dulled popular taste it lacked the freshness of its predeces- 
sors. The critics, both here and in England, dwelt more upon 
its faults than upon its merits. Their scalpels cut him deep- 
ly, wounded him sorely, and so stimulated the melancholy 
tendencies in his sensitive nature, as to incline him to take 
morbid views of himself, of society, and of his choice of 
literature as a profession. For a time he lived idly in France, 
traveling somewhat, reading but little, giving some of his 



10 WASHINGTON IRVING. 

hours to the study of the Spanish language, and suffering 
more or less from disease. That fashionable life had lost 
much of its charm for him, and that the mood of his mind 
was far from being cheerful is evident from many passages 
in his correspondence at this period. In those letters he ex- 
presses regret that he had wandered into the " seductive and 
treacherous paths of literature," and declares that " his path 
has too often lain among thorns and brambles, and been 
darkened by cares and despondency. ... I have a thousand 
times regretted," he adds, " that I was ever led away by my 
imagination." He closes a year of comparative idleness 
(1825) and almost aimless rambling about the pleasant places 
of France, with this significant confession, " A year very 
little gf which would I willingly live over again, though 
some parts have been tolerably pleasant." 

Had Irving's literary aims been higher than to amuse his 
readers, had his heart been a temple consecrated to the ever 
living Christ, would not his reflections have been far more 
cheerful and satisfactory ? , 

The profits of the books which had made him famous were 
largely swallowed up in unfortunate speculations entered 
upon at the suggestion of one of his brothers. The palled 
taste of the public no longer justified the writing of more 
works dug from the same humorous veins. Moreover, his 
mental depression inclined him to believe that the fountain 
of his genius was exhausted. Yet write he must, or his fail- 
ing purse would soon shrink into leanness and beggary. 
But what should he write, was the perplexing question. 

Happily for his fame his thoughts were attracted to the 
romantic events connected with the old times in Spain. He 
went to Madrid. He visited Granada. He trod the marble 
floors of the beautiful Alhambra. His imagination rioted 
amid scenes which it repeopled with Moorish cavaliers and 
victorious Spanish knights. Then his genius revived. His 
fluent pen began to invest the generally unknown incidents 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 11 

of the Conquest of Granada with an irresistible fascination. 
But at the suggestion of friends he laid that work aside, 
and bent all his energies with a persistent industry which 
was new to him to the production of his " Life of Columbus." 
The effect of this diligence on a work of higher importance 
than his previous productions was such, that at the close of 
the year (1826) he writes: u So ends a year of the hardest 
application and toil of the pen I have ever passed. I feel 
more satisfied, however, with the manner in which I have 
passed it than I have been with that of many gayer years, 
and close this year of my life in better humor with myself 
than I have often done." 

His Columbus not only revived his popularity, but it also 
added much to his fame. Though over-wrought with rhe- 
torical embellishment in some of its descriptions, it was ac- 
cepted even by the critics as the best life of the great discover- 
er that had hitherto appeared. In addition to its scarcely de- 
finable charms of style, it possessed historical value, as did 
also his " C@mpanions of Columbus," published shortly after. 
It is scarcely probable that a better life of the wonderful but 
unfortunate sailor, who did so much for mankind, will ever 
be written. 

Mr. Irving continued to reside in Spain, more or less busy 
with his " Conquest of Granada," and with the documents 
found in Spanish archives, from which he was extracting 
materials for his " Legends of the Conquest of Spain," until 
1829. In this year he somewhat reluctantly removed to 
London to fill the office of Secretary of Legation, to which 
he had been appointed by our Government, without either 
his desire or knowledge. 

London society again opened its doors to the popular 
author, and he was soon satiated with its adulation. The 
leaders of literary circles hastened to lay their honors at his 
feet. The Royal Society of Literature gave him one of its 
gold medals as an author of eminent merit. Oxford gave 



12 WASHINGTON IRVING. 

him the degree of D.C.L., a laurel which, while he accepted 
it, his modesty did not suffer him to use. 

After two years of official life in London his heart hun- 
gered for his native land and for the renewal of his home 
associations. The charms of gay life in aristocratic circles 
had lost much of their old power. He found his " situation," 
he writes, " a terrible sacrifice of pleasure, profit, and literary 
reputation without furnishing any recompense." Hence he 
resigned his office, returned to New York, and to his former 
friends. It needs scarcely be added that he was received 
with a degree of warmth and popular admiration eminently 
satisfactory both to his affections and to his literary ambitions. 

After making a somewhat extensive tour to the Southern 
and Western States, Irving resumed his literary labors. His 
purchase of Sunnyside, on the banks of the Hudson, followed. 
Our limited space forbids us to more than mention the further 
fruits of his delightful pen. After the issue of his "Alhanibra," 
come his "Astoria," "Tour on the Prairies," and "Captain 
Bonneville." Then he went to Spain, where he servedfrom 
1842 to 1846, as United States Minister. Returning home 
in 1846, he subsequently gave the world his "Life of Oliver 
Goldsmith," " Mohammed and his Successors," " Wolfert's 
Roost," and, finally, his most admirable "Life of George 
Washington." All these works became immensely popular, 
and their profits, added to his previous royalties, made him 
a man of ample wealth. 

In 1859 the ungentle messenger of death laid an iron hand 
upon him. Asthma, insomnia, and nervousness forbade all 
further prolonged use of his graceful pen, and made his few 
surviving months of life painfully uncomfortable. He had 
become a communicant in the Episcopal Church ; yet we get 
no hint from his biographer that he was given either to re- 
ligious conversation, reading, or meditation ; but frequent 
statements that he beguiled many of his tedious hours by 
playing whist with his attentive friends. What his secret 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 13 

thoughts were, or what his preparations for life's last mys- 
terious journey, is unknown. Let us hope that this man ? 
whose soul was so quick to catch every line of beauty to be 
found in nature and in human life, was secretly attracted 
also to Him in whom is concentrated the elements of all that 
is beautiful in the universe. Let us charitably hope that 
when, on the evening of November 25, 1859, he suddenly 
closed his eyes to the earth, he opened them on the shore of 
the beautiful land. 

Regarded as literary productions, living's writings hold a 
high rank. He was master of a most fascinating style and of 
the " art of putting things." His imagination, though not of 
the highest order, was yet creative of characters, such as Icha- 
bod Crane, Rip Van Winkle, etc., so real that they will go 
down to posterity like beings who have actually lived. In 
fancy he was inferior to few ; perhaps it was at times ex- 
cessive, causing him to overload objects he admired with 
rhetorical adornments. But his highest charm is the quiet 
humor and the half -concealed sensibility which exude like 
fragrant balsams from his sketches, tales, and biographies. 
Moreover, such was his love of the beautiful that he rarely 
painted the offensive or hideous side of things. In all his 
writings he sought to give his readers pleasure, and to avoid 
giving birth to painful emotions. He wrote pure English, 
and to him belongs the honor of being the first American 
author who won recognition in Europe as a master of the 
literary art. 

It is also creditable to Irving that, though writing to 
please, he never ministered to the impure side of human 
nature. He never pandered to evil passions. Nevertheless, 
when placed in the balances of the sanctuary, it must be re- 
luctantly confessed that his writings do not meet the demands 
of even a moderate Christian consciousness. Though not 
directly anti-Christian, they are not written in the spirit of 
experimental Christianity. Their sympathies are with the 



14 WASHINGTON IRVING. 

worldly side of human life, with its gayeties, its frivolous 
pursuits, its contentedness with the good things of this life. 
In this they but express their author's character. Genial, 
lovable, kind, charitable though he was in his earthly rela- 
tionships, Irving never carefully cultivated the spiritual side 
of his nature. His ideal of the Christian life was surely not 
up to the standard of Christ. Had it been he could not have 
seen, as he did, the marks of a true Christian in the weak 
and wayward character of poor Oliver Goldsmith, of whom 
he wrote : 

"It has been questioned whether he (Goldsmith) really had 
any religious feeling. Those who raise this question have never 
considered well his writings ; his i Vicar of Wakefield' and 
his pictures of the village pastor present religion under its 
most endearing forms, and with a feeling that could only 
flow from the deep convictions of the heart. When his fair 
traveling companion at Paris urged him to read the Church 
Service on a Sunday, he replied that he was not worthy to 
do it. He had seen in early life the sacred offices performed 
by his father and his brother with a solemnity which had sanc- 
tified them in his memory ; how could he presume to under- 
take such functions ? His religion has been called in ques- 
tion by Johnson and by Boswell ; he certainly had not the 
gloomy hypochondriacal piety of the one, nor the babbling 
mouth piety of the other, but the spirit of Christian charity 
breathed forth in his writings and illustrated in his conduct, 
gives us reason to believe he had the indwelling religion of 
the soul." 

That Oliver Goldsmith had a sentimental regard for the 
forms of Christianity there is no doubt. Unfortunately his 
unhappy life proves that this regard had little influence over 
his conduct. He knew the right, felt his obligation to per- 
form it, but lacked the will or the power, or both, to com- 
ply with its claims. Hence he was a vain, good-natured, 
indolent, (except when spurred to action by stern necessity,) 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 15 

self-indulgent, thoughtless, roystering spendthrift. Yet 
with all these blemishes in his life, with no evidence of his 
repentance, no sign of his being born anew, because of the 
sentimental charity that tolerates deeds which the Gospel 
condemns, and which never touches the spiritual side of men's 
nature, found in Goldsmith's writings, Mr. Irving sees reason 
to believe he had the " indwelling religion of the soul." 

Alas ! that our charming Magician of the Hudson should 
have had so dwarfed a Christian consciousness as to be de- 
luded into the belief that a man so unlike the gospel pattern 
of a Christian man was a disciple of the self-denying Christ ! 
Yet so it was; and, therefore, no spiritually-minded man, 
whose literary tastes make him an admirer of the genial mas- 
ter of Sunnyside, can well help recalling the words of his 
mother, when she cried, " Oh, Washington, if you were only 
good ! " and exclaiming, " Oh, Washington Irving, if thy 
writings had been conceived in the spirit of thy soul's Mas- 
ter, they might have ministered not merely to men's amuse- 
ment and intellectual profit, but also to the promotion of the 
world's growth in righteousness." 



16 WASHINGTON IRVING. 



POLITE LITEKATTTKE. 

With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the 
froward thou wilt show thyself unsavory. 

" Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear." 

There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword ; but 
the tongue of the wise is health. 

Fancy makes vitality where it does not find it ; to it all 
things are alive. On this unfrequented walk even the dry 
leaf that is stirred by a slight breath of air across the path, 
seems for a moment to have its little life and its tiny pur- 
pose. — John Foster. 

Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give 
account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words 
thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be con- 
demned. 

No one can be so absurd as to represent the notions which 
pervade the works of polite literature as totally, and at all 
points, opposite to the principles of Christianity ; what I am 
asserting is, that in some important points they are substan- 
tially and essentially different, and that in others they dis- 
own the Christian modification. — John Foster. 

A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth 
forth good things : and an evil man out of the evil treasure 
bringeth forth evil things. 

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and 
some few to be chewed and digested ; that is, some books 
are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curi- 
ously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence 
and attention. — Fbancis Bacon. 



■WASHINGTON XZ=L^ri3STO. 
[thought outline to help the memoey.] 

1. Birth? Family? Pedigree? Childhood? Name? Home religious influ- 

ence? Mother and father — characteristics? Church? 

2. Educational advantages? Boy-characteristics? Theater? Law? 



Health ? European tour ? Early literary sketches ? 

Impression made? Bereavement? 
Cutlery? Military? England? Bankruptcy? ' 

In society ? Humility ? " Bracebridge Hall ? " 

Sharp criticisms ? Depression ? 
To Spain ? Literary results ? Honors in England ? 

and Western tour* ? Other writings ? 
Illness and death ? His literary style ? Purity of tone 

Our regrets ? 



" History of New York ? » 



Sketch-book?" Success? 
Next literary production ? 



New York? Southern 
Eeligious element ? 



CHAUTAUQUA TEXT-BOOKS. 



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a. William Wordsworth. By Daniel 

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4. Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. 

By Daniel Wise, D.D. 

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Wise, D.D. J69. 

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fired Taylor. 83. 

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Ridgaway, D.D. 
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Readings from Cowpar. 
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Words. By Mrs. V. C. Phcebus. 
Readings from Oliver Goldsmith, 
Art in Greece. Part I. 
Art In Italy. Part I. 
Art in Germany. 
Art in France. 
Art in England. 
Art in America. 
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Farrar, A.B. 
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Mrs. V. C. Phcebus. 
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The World of Science. 
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